ROSIE Belsham has set a benchmark at a County Durham golf club – even though she’s only 14.

The Northumberland Under-21 champion, and England junior squad golfer, holed out from 166 yards in a regional open tournament to become the youngest player in the 93-year history of the club to sign for an albatross – three under par - at the par five second hole.

It was her first albatross and followed her first hole in one during a Saturday morning friendly match at her home club, Whitley Bay, early this season against her mother, Gina, an operations director in the IT industry.

Rosie aced Whitley Bay’s third hole, despite cutting her mother some slack by playing off the men’s tees.

The albatross was chalked up in the second round of the three-day North of England Under-14 Open. Supported by the Stanley Area Action Partnership, the tournament attracted players to County Durham from all four home countries as well as Dubai and South Africa.

Rosie, a pupil at Whitley Bay High School, was runner-up in the girls section and one of the event organisers, Guy Carr, said: “We get an albatross at the second hole only about once every five years and never before with a player so young.

“Last year Chris Handy became the first golfer from South Moor to win a national title and even Chris has never done it.”

The second hole was 425 yards for the tournament and Rosie’s tee shot finished 55 yards from a copse of trees.

She soared over them with a wind assisted six iron which hit the right fringe of the green half way up, before rolling diagonally down and across almost the entire width of the green into the hole positioned front left.

This season has brought Rosie, a member of England Golf’s North Region Under-16 Squad, joint second place in the Scottish Girls Under-14 Championship. Mum Gina and dad Chris, a property developer, are also members of Whitley Bay.

The overall North of England title goes to the boy or girl with the best gross score and it was shared on 11 over by two Hertfordshire players, Max Hopkins and Ben Pierleoni.

It was a highly successful event for Herts. Zainab Jepp triumphed in the girls section, signing off the final round with a 30-foot putt, and George Durkan joined the joint tournament champions to form the Hertfordshire County Boys side who claimed the team trophy.

Gabe Somerville Smith, from the Consett club, won the Under-12 handicap section playing off 22.

For more information and the tournament scoreboard, visit northofenglandu14golf.co.uk

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